Second baseman Brian Roberts has been working out, although Showalter said he wouldn’t be completely honest if he said that Roberts has had no health setbacks this winter. There remains cautious optimism that he can stay healthy and help the club, but –as I’ve written before– there are contingency plans in place.

Hoping the setbacks have to do with the hip and not something to do with the multiple concussions that caused him to miss so much time over the past three years. Either way, the poor guy seems to be snakebitten.

I had a torn labrum in my right hip just like Brian. Had the same procedure done by the same orthopedic group that did his. Their biggest warning to me was being patient with recovery and most everyone can have setbacks. Hopefully the setback is minor hip discomfort and not related to his concussion.

I am pretty sure this is the last year of his contract and I am sure he will retire after that. Got to give the guy credit for continuing to try to come back instead of retiring under contract and just sitting at home collected a fat paycheck.

This is guy is a walking setback. Hasn’t been healthy in years. It is a shame though because he’s a good player and I like him (even if he was a PED user – he’s in that Andy Pettitte category where it’s just tough to dislike them).

Brian Roberts was just on 105.7 The Fan on Wednesday morning. They asked him how he’s doing and you can tell in his voice that he must have been experiencing setbacks but he also said that he’s still scheduled to be at spring training and that that hasn’t changed.

After a serious concussion and hip surgery of course the guy is going to experience some health issues every once in a while. It’d be crazy to think that he hasn’t.

However I wouldn’t be surprised if this is his last year. He’s up in age even for a health baseball player. Add in that this is the last year of his contract and you’ve got a recipe for retirement.

B-Rob…. what can you say at this point? The O’s did not make a move to improve the position and banked on a healthy Roberts in 2013. That was a HUGE risk, and not a very calculated one at that. The worst part? The backup plan is Casilla to play full time, and that is worrisome. He’s a platoon guy at best, which puts us right back to where we started with Andino & Co. last year. I’d love to be optimistic but after 2+ years of this, it’s very difficult to assume Roberts is every going to be the player he was before his health went south. I get that they have a ton of money tied up in him and don’t want to wave the white flag here, but at some point you just have to accept reality and move on. Great player pre-concussions, greater person off the field, but unfortunately being great off the field doesn’t help the product on the field.

I have been Emailing for some time we need the whole left side of the infield[not the bench-warmers G.G.signed] There were players available who could defensively have done the job AND ,hopefully,replace the 40HR’s we lost with Reynolds.

In the 3 seasons of his 4/$40 mil deal he has played 115 games batting .244/7 hr/39 rbi. He owes it to this franchise to retire after basically stealing $30 mil. Roberts is a good guy in the community and gave the O’s 4 or 5 pretty good seasons but it’s time to move on to clear up space and money. Do the right thing Brian.